點鐵成金

简 点铁成金 · 繁 點鐵成金
Mandarin · pinyin diǎn tiě chéng jīn

Meanings

  1. to touch base matter and turn it to gold (idiom); fig. to turn crude writing into a literary gem
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Characters in this entry

點
diǎn · dot, speck, spot; point, degree
鐵
Look up this written character
成
chéng · completed, finished, fixed
金
jīn · gold; metals in general; money; Kangxi radical 167
点
diǎn · dot, speck, spot; point, degree
铁
tiě · iron; strong, solid, firm
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–3–2–1 · dian3 tie3 cheng2 jin1

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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點鐵成金 · dian3 tie3 cheng2 jin1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 124,620
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record點鐵成金 点铁成金 [dian3 tie3 cheng2 jin1] /to touch base matter and turn it to gold (idiom); fig. to turn crude writing into a literary gem/